If you haven’t met Meredith, the best way I can describe knowing her is watching how she moves effortlessly through life connecting wonderful people, creating beautiful, high-vibration food and curating the finest in design, art, research and ideas to enhance modern living. Basically, everything she touches around her flourishes- she’s author of several gorgeous raw and vegan food books- her latest is Coconut Kitchen and with the launch of Nucifera comes and entirely new adventure for Meredith, she’s about to become the parent of who we know is going to be a very cultured babe!

Please welcome Garden Eats’ friend, the lovely, Meredith Baird, co-founder of what we’ve found is now one of life’s necessities, Nucifera’s The Balm.

Garden Eats: We use Nucifera on all of my parts haha. What’s your favorite use for Nucifera?

Meredith Baird for Nucifera: I think my favorite thing to use it for is actually as a face wash. I massage into my skin (and on my eyes if wearing eye makeup) and remove with a warm washcloth to gently exfoliate. My skin feels so soft I barely need to add moisturizer. Using oils to wash your skin has started to become main stream knowledge- but I don’t know why I didn’t start doing it a lot sooner!

GE: For readers who might not already be familiar with the phrase “medical grade” can you describe why you chose medical grade ingredients?

MB: Choosing medicinal grade ingredients means choosing the best quality with highest potency and efficacy. Many essential oils on the market are diluted, or aren’t sourced from the highest quality plants. We work with a company that analyzes every oil with the most sophisticated scientific method using a GC/MS (Gas Chromatograph/ Mass Spectrometer). Through GC/MS analysis they can guarantee that the essential oils we are using are unaltered, of the highest quality, correct chemotype, and 100% pure.

And in basic terms this means they work!

GE: When you wrote Coconut Kitchen, did you know you were going to launch a body balm? What inspired you to create this particular blend?

MB: When I wrote Coconut Kitchen, I did not know that I was going to launch The Balm, but after years of dealing with dry skin and experimenting on my own I created a formula that worked for me. Writing Coconut Kitchen gave me a deeper understanding of coconuts/ coconut oil and why its so effective- I also noticed that it worked in unexpected ways that I’d never experienced before – that it reduced discoloration, and worked well as a makeup remover were the two standouts!

Once the book was out it provided a platform to launch the product.

GE: Can you settle a great debate. Some love to use coconut oil for a sunburn while others claim it can cook the skin if the skin is too hot following sun exposure. Thoughts/comments?

MB: Sunburns come in all levels of intensity. Obviously the best choice is to not get burned. Coconut oil can really help prep your skin for the sun if you apply it and then lie out in 5 minute increments to increase exposure before a vacation or spending a long time in the sun. Coconut oil does contain small amounts of natural SPF so it helps tone the skin. The problem with using coconut oil on a severe burn is that it might not be quite moisturizing or soothing enough for a really intense burn. Coconut oil has so many amazing properties, but some of them aren’t necessarily needed during the ‘burnt to a crisp’ phase- aka the complexity of coconut oil may cause irritation depending on your skin type.

That being said, for a minor burn or unexpected redness coconut oil can work wonders – and wearing coconut oil in the sun does not cause you to burn!

Nucifera – The Balm is actually only made up of 1/4 coconut oil. The combination of oils and essential oils in our product actually make it great for sunburns! We have some really wonderful testimonials from people who have used it.

GE: We’ve been suggesting Nucifera for a diaper balm, are you going to use it for baby girl? Any other cool uses for kids?

MB: My baby will be slathered in it! I hope she won’t have skin issues – but I certainly plan on using The Balm for any ailments that may come about. I’ve used it the whole time during pregnancy and don’t have any stretch marks or discoloration which I feel very grateful for.

I’ll have to get back to you on the cool uses for kids once I have mine. I imagine it will be good for any cradle cap or weird newborn skin stuff!

C H R I S T I N E Dionese, co-founder of flavor ID and Garden Eats is an integrative health & food therapy specialist, medical & food journalist. She has dedicated her career to helping others understand the science of happiness and its powerful effects on everyday human health by harnessing the power of the epigenetic landscape.
To balance the more serious side of her work, she loves to concoct, write about and connect people through food & drink. You can check out her latest work at The Chalkboard Magazine, The Fullest and Rochester's Boomtown Table. Christine lives, works and plays between Southern California & Upstate New York.

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